This book puts radical theology and political theology into an interdisciplinary conversation with sustained and serious readings of resistance. Using an anthropology of ritual as a common thread, Jordan E. Miller explores the reality of the relationship between political theology, radical theology, and political theory, action, and power without cynicism in a creative, forward-moving way. The first half of the book develops a radical political theology and the second half applies that theory to a series of social movements, including The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), Occupy Wall Street, and #BlackLivesMatter, and includes reflections on the events at Standing Rock, ND.

Jordan E. Miller is a community organizer, interdisciplinary teacher, and scholar who specializes in religion, social movements, and resistance studies. Dr. Miller is the co-editor of The Palgrave Handbook of Radical Theology (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).

“Resisting Theology, Furious Hope is an urgent conversation between society as it is—the world as such, this place we call home—and a proximate community that’s more peaceful and balanced, more joyous and just, that is, a world suspended just beyond the far horizon that could be or should be. In this remarkable book Jordan Miller assumes that we are all citizens of a world that does not yet exist; he invites us to join him as he dives into the wreckage all around, to listen with the possibility of being changed, to speak and act with the possibility of being heard, and in the process to become the creators and cartographers of that possible world.”(William Ayers, author of Fugitive Days (2001), Teaching Toward Freedom (2004), and Demand the Impossible! (2016))

“A genuine heir of radical theology, Miller has given us a complex and nuanced treatment of theology, one that must be done where social actions are happening. Attuned to the resisting movements of our time, Miller writes about the reverberations of the political, its contradictions and challenges, pushing us to fundamentally start thinking where resistance is bursting, so that theology can engage in its fundamental struggle: to resist death with a furious hope that can only come by engaging deeply in movements.” (Cláudio Carvalhaes, author of Eucharist and Globalization (2013) and What’s Worship Got to Do with It? (2018), editor of Liturgy in Postcolonial Perspectives (2015), and Associate Professor of Worship at Union Theological Seminary, USA)

“Miller’s text is thoroughly thought-provoking and rich. It has innumerable contours, side-arguments, potential avenues of further exploration. It is a theological, philosophical reflection that somehow manages to cut to the heart of present-day social struggles. It provides a valuable guide for theorizing resistance (and theology) in a way that is generally lacking in political circles today. Miller’s writing is sharp and poetic and this book not only addresses recent social movements but maps out a blueprint for analyzing the movements of the future.” (Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook (2017) and Lecturer at Dartmouth College, USA)